Jazz Articles

Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.

131

Album Review

Chefa Alonso and Albert Kaul: The Reliable Uncertainty

Read "The Reliable Uncertainty" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
March 14, 2011

Chefa Alonso plays soprano saxophone as well as percussion; Albert Kaul plays piano and clavichord. Despite recording extensively in other contexts, their discography as a duo is in its infancy and in a state of flux; a more appropriate title here might be “The curious case of Chefa and Albert." A four-track version of The Reliable Uncertainty was released by Audition Records in December 2010 as “a first bite of the next cd-album of this duo." The four tracks are ...

366

Extended Analysis

Yo Miles! Revisited: Lightning and Shinjuku

by John Kelman
March 14, 2011

Amongst the plethora of tributes to trumpet icon Miles Davis' electric period on Columbia, beginning with 1969's In a Silent Way and ending with 1975's Agharta and Pangaea, only a few stand out as being truly reverential--not just to the electrified energy and jungle funk of the music, but to its undeniably avant leanings as well. Perhaps it's because guitarist Henry Kaiser and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith live largely in the left-of-center, that their Yo Miles! Project has been particularly ...

182

Album Review

Dave Chisholm: Radioactive

Read "Radioactive" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
March 14, 2011

Radioactive was recorded in Salt Lake City in 2009, while bandleader/composer/trumpeter Dave Chisholm was working on the Master of Music degree at the University of Utah. Recording a debut album as leader with a 17-piece big band might be considered a tad hubristic, even for a Masters program--"start small" might be the received wisdom--but why not, if the chops are there to back it up? Chisholm's chops are there, instrumentally and compositionally; and so too are those of his young ...

136

Album Review

Paolo Fresu: Songlines / Night & Blue

Read "Songlines / Night & Blue" reviewed by Greg Simmons

by Greg Simmons
March 14, 2011

Paolo Fresu's Songlines/Night & Blue is a beautiful performance by a musician who does not feel compelled to prove himself with pyrotechnics. Instead, on this two-disc set, the Italian trumpeter prefers speaking his piece with lush melodies and a rich full horn sound, supported by an exceptional quartet. Being an Italian album, it seems appropriate to use a few musical terms. The entire affair, around 140 minutes in length, is taken sostenuto (smoothly), with a pace that slides ...

325

Live Review

Ingrid Laubrock’s Anti-House: London, UK, January 18, 2011

by John Sharpe
March 14, 2011

Ingrid Laubrock's Anti-HouseVortex Jazz ClubLondonJanuary 18, 2011 If music could be said to resemble a puzzle, then German saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock's Anti-House might be described as the sonic equivalent of a Sudoku. You know all the numbers fit somewhere and that there is logic behind it, but it just escapes comprehension as to how it operates. Without wanting to stretch the metaphor beyond breaking point, that was the conundrum facing listeners at the Vortex on ...

250

Album Review

Dado Moroni Trio: Dado Moroni Live in Beverly Hills

Read "Dado Moroni Live in Beverly Hills" reviewed by Larry Taylor

by Larry Taylor
March 14, 2011

Italian pianist/composer Dado Moroni is internationally respected for his driving piano style and improvisational skills. Now, in his Resonance debut, he comes up with complex trio arrangements, always swinging and intellectually stimulating. Moroni was born in 1962 and raised in Genoa, Italy, taking to music early, playing the family piano at three. Later, he studied formally and started playing gigs with local Italian musicians Becoming discouraged, he decided to study law. At that time, however, he played ...

500

Interview

Wadada Leo Smith: The Teacher

by Franz A. Matzner
March 14, 2011

Wadada Leo Smith's career as a creative musician spans more than forty years. The trumpeter/composer's myriad accomplishments have been well-documented, particularly recently, as his recoding and performance career have undergone a marked renaissance, the success of which has shown a spotlight not only on his recent undertakings, but also inspired a reexamination of his past works.As an early contributor to the development of the free music revolution, Smith was an early member of the Association for the Advancement ...

191

Album Review

Animation: Asiento

by Mark Corroto
March 13, 2011

1969 was perhaps a watershed year for jazz in America. Trumpeter Miles Davis, the anointed pied piper, recorded Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970). It was to be the beginning of jazz/rock fusion. Maybe better described as jazz/rock/soul/funk fusion. Miles wasn't one to miss out on trends. He saw the popularity of Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, with their rocked-out blues/soul sound, and he decided to get in on the action. Fast-forward to the conservative purge of the 1980s, when ...

155

Live Review

Bruce Barth Trio: New York City, March 3, 2011

by Emilie Pons
March 13, 2011

Bruce Barth TrioSmallsNew York City, USAMarch 3, 2011 On Thursday night, March 3, 2011, at Smalls in New York City, pianist Bruce Barth, bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Adam Cruz delighted an audience of jazz aficionados, gathered for a lovely CD release party for Bruce Barth Trio, The Flail, and the surprising Cyrille Aimee + Friends, with singer Aimee's beautifully raucous and raspy voice quieting the chatty room of jazz lovers to a hush. ...

191

Album Review

Ahmad Hassan Muhammad: Fly

Read "Fly" reviewed by Jonathan Wertheim

by Jonathan Wertheim
March 13, 2011

Ahmad Hassan Muhammad isn't a big name in jazz--yet. The Cincinnati-born pianist self-produced and released hist first record, Fly, in October 2010, and while the disc is very much a first effort, it holds surprise, pleasure and promise often unheard in second or third releases by others in the jazz scene today. Everything about the disc's opener, “Star Child"--a piano intro that stretches like a rubber band, the subtle entry of the bass and drums, the crescendo ...